Cliff Stamp
BANNED
- Joined
- Oct 5, 1998
- Messages
- 17,562
Yesterday on A&E I caught a program on a "Mountain Man Rendezvous", what
caught my eye was the focus which was on tomahawk and knife throwing. There
was a lot more to the event than just the throwing but that was all I was
interested in. It was a well done piece that focused more on the
individuals than the contest, but you did get to see a lot of detailed
information on throwing, both in regards to styles as well as the nature of
the blades used. Some comments :
The tomahawk styles were very consistent, there were minor differences seen
from individual to individual but the base shape was that of the Cold Steel
"Frontier Hawk" :
http://www.onestopknifeshop.com/images/coldsteel/cs-90f.jpg
however I severely doubt that was the exact model they were using.
The knife styles however were all over the place and that really stood out
to me. There were some similar to what Bobby Branton makes, but some that
looked like no throwing knife I had ever seen. Some had drastically upswept
points like skinners, others had huge cleaver like blades with recurves etc.
. Some were that curved that they look like a hawkbill only reversed. Some
of the people that placed very high used such knives.
The throwing styles were fairly uniform. They were throwing from one turn
distance, and you would see fairly fluid motions with clean follow throughs.
The one exception to this was "Running Elk" who threw the knives more like
darts with little to no upper body movement. He placed second overall, which
was even more impressive considering how little he threw. You could throw as
often as you would like, cost you a few dollars a round and your highest
score counted.
One thing I did noticed however was that quite a number of people threw the
knives with edge side up, on many this was to allow a stick with the upswept
point. The targets were very dense and the knives hat to get pretty much a
direct point stick to remain in the wood. In regards to the tomahawks a lot
of people had problems with direct hits and had to adjust their distance to
get a hit on the toe of the edge to obtain a stick.
In regards to skill, they were throwing at a center bull of about 3" in
diameter and the winning score was usually 45-47 (they had several different
catagories). This means that you are hitting the bull 4 out of 5 times and
hitting the next ring (again as wide) on the remaining throw. Consider as
well that this was as friendly a contest as I had ever seen, the mood seemed
to be just as serious as something you would run in your backward, very
little stress, done for a lot of fun.
One last thing that really stood out to me was how loose the head were on
the tomahawks. Several times they popped off even after a correct hit, which
means they were barely on. There was little delay with the person getting
the tomahawk back and throwing again which I infer to mean that they just
gave it a little tap to set it back in place.
-Cliff
caught my eye was the focus which was on tomahawk and knife throwing. There
was a lot more to the event than just the throwing but that was all I was
interested in. It was a well done piece that focused more on the
individuals than the contest, but you did get to see a lot of detailed
information on throwing, both in regards to styles as well as the nature of
the blades used. Some comments :
The tomahawk styles were very consistent, there were minor differences seen
from individual to individual but the base shape was that of the Cold Steel
"Frontier Hawk" :
http://www.onestopknifeshop.com/images/coldsteel/cs-90f.jpg
however I severely doubt that was the exact model they were using.
The knife styles however were all over the place and that really stood out
to me. There were some similar to what Bobby Branton makes, but some that
looked like no throwing knife I had ever seen. Some had drastically upswept
points like skinners, others had huge cleaver like blades with recurves etc.
. Some were that curved that they look like a hawkbill only reversed. Some
of the people that placed very high used such knives.
The throwing styles were fairly uniform. They were throwing from one turn
distance, and you would see fairly fluid motions with clean follow throughs.
The one exception to this was "Running Elk" who threw the knives more like
darts with little to no upper body movement. He placed second overall, which
was even more impressive considering how little he threw. You could throw as
often as you would like, cost you a few dollars a round and your highest
score counted.
One thing I did noticed however was that quite a number of people threw the
knives with edge side up, on many this was to allow a stick with the upswept
point. The targets were very dense and the knives hat to get pretty much a
direct point stick to remain in the wood. In regards to the tomahawks a lot
of people had problems with direct hits and had to adjust their distance to
get a hit on the toe of the edge to obtain a stick.
In regards to skill, they were throwing at a center bull of about 3" in
diameter and the winning score was usually 45-47 (they had several different
catagories). This means that you are hitting the bull 4 out of 5 times and
hitting the next ring (again as wide) on the remaining throw. Consider as
well that this was as friendly a contest as I had ever seen, the mood seemed
to be just as serious as something you would run in your backward, very
little stress, done for a lot of fun.
One last thing that really stood out to me was how loose the head were on
the tomahawks. Several times they popped off even after a correct hit, which
means they were barely on. There was little delay with the person getting
the tomahawk back and throwing again which I infer to mean that they just
gave it a little tap to set it back in place.
-Cliff